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Posted on 11/22/2012 8:20:56 PM PST by prairiebreeze
BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — Two people died and more than 80 people were hurt Thursday when at least 100 vehicles collided in Southeast Texas in a pileup that left trucks twisted on top of each other and authorities rushing to pull survivors from the wreckage.
The collision occurred in extremely foggy conditions at about 8:45 a.m. Thanksgiving Day on Interstate 10 southwest of Beaumont, a Gulf Coast city about 80 miles east of Houston.
A man and a woman were killed in a Chevy Suburban SUV crushed by a tractor trailer, the Texas Department of Public Safety told KFDM-TV.
Officials at Acadian Ambulance service said at least 51 people have been taken to area hospitals and at least eight are critically hurt.
According to DPS, a crash on the eastbound side of the highway led to other accidents in a dangerous chain reaction. There were multiple crashes on the other side of the highway as well.
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Deputy Rod Carroll told The Associated Press the fog was so thick that deputies didn't immediately realize they were dealing with multiple accidents.
"It is catastrophic," Carroll said. "I've got cars on top of cars."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Yesterday morning, because of the lay of the land, visibility from my front porch was about a half mile looking east and less than 100 yards looking west. I could make out the top of the trees at 75 yards.
Patchy fog in this area is like hitting a wall, it's just that fast and people just don't get it.
If it's a ground fog a truck driver in his cab may be above the heavy fog line. His visibility will be completely different than a driver in a small car.
Even the best driver isn't prepared for it.
With the number of trucks involved most probably were from out of state.
Doesn't stop the snarky comments though does it.
I was behind this pile-up yesterday, going to a relative’s house for Thanksgiving. I can’t say what the fog was like at the point of the pile-up, because we never made it that far, but the fog we went through was NOT zero visibility. We could see at least a quarter of a mile, and had no problem seeing the cars in front of us for a good way.
Perhaps 30 minutes before we came upon the road block and were diverted onto another highway, my husband commented that people were driving too fast in the fog and he made it a point to back off and leave a greater distance between our vehicle and the ones ahead of us.
There were at least 5 cars of people at our Thanksgiving dinner that had planned to travel that stretch of highway that morning, not in a caravan, all separately. Fortunately, we all made it through without being involved, and were just detoured and delayed by few minutes.
Closest I can come to describing it would be to imagine everybody’s headlights suddenly shut off, there are no street lights, no light of any kind, you’re just in a sort of limbo, you get disoriented and couldn’t tell whether you were up, down or sideways. You can hear tires screeching, crashes and people yelling, but you have absolutely no clue where they are.
Latest U-Haul Index Shows Californians Leaving for Texas
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2962357/posts
Wow, I don't think I would have been brave enough to cross that four-lane highway.
What I always loved when I lived in snow country was not being able to see past the inside of the windshield. when that happened I would drive looking out the passenger side window to guage how close I was to the guarde rail to make sure I kept driving straight.
Really glad I no longer have to drive all those miles for a living.
Well, I was driving to a major automobile race track to instruct beginning race car drivers. ;)
Yeah, I’ve had that happen to me just south of Flagstaff too.
But the worst case I ran into was just south of Denver on I-25 on Monument Pass. Not much of “pass” by Colorado standards, actually pretty similar to interstate just south of Flagstaff, just windy enough that there’s some blind corners where you can enter the corner in full clear and run into a zero visibility fog bank in the middle of the turn.
And just like Flagstaff, just a little band of Armco between you and a several hundred foot drop.
Yikes! I forgot to say that was I-17 (as you know) — and you’d think it would be marked. There are so many spots marked “icy bridge” or “watch for ice” or whatever — maybe “watch for fog” would be helpful. I had no idea it was so common there, until after it happened to us and then all of our friends said “oh yeah, that happened to us too.” (We only go up there about once every couple of years.)
Oh, scary about Denver.
I’m sorry I’m replying so late to your comment, PNSN. After Sarah’s passing, I gradually felt the energy drain out of my body, and I’ve been resting for long periods. Yes. This was the same section of I-10 on which Joe and Paula were traveling, although they were farther west when the pileup occurred. If they had departed from home a little later, they might have been involved. I will never forget the wonderful outpouring of prayer and concern over the past few days and neither will they. There is much to be done in El Paso, as the body must be transported to New Mexico for the funeral. Paula is the eldest, the executor, and an attorney, so she is busy and that is good. I will have some final news and “thank you’s” from the family in a few days. You are on my ping list for Sarah, PNSN. Thank you, and God bless!
Don't feel the need to do anything but rest. Having relatives on that dangerous road on the busiest day of the year and time not being on their side plus sweet Sarah's breathe getting more shallow while praying for signs of recovery takes it toll.
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